Two men have been jailed for a combined 40 years after being found guilty of a calculated aggravated burglary near Cambridge in which they tortured an elderly couple.

John McCarthy, 35, of Greystoke Court and Richard Leslie, 37, of Hatherdene Close, Cambridge, were handed a 20 year sentence each at The Old Bailey today (December 2).

The pair, armed with a sledgehammer and a crow bar and wearing white ‘boiler’ suits and balacalavas, smashed their way into a property in Madingley Road, Coton, at about 10pm on November 29, 2014.

They proceeded to subject the two elderly residents to a sustained ordeal, during which they were bound with gaffer tape and assaulted. The female victim had her toe and teeth broken by one of the offenders during the attack.

The victims were then locked in a room, from which they eventually managed to escape some hours later.

McCarthy and Leslie were both found guilty of aggravated burglary following a trial in July.

In a statement, the victims’ daughter, who does not wish to be named, said: “The horrific details of the crime have been laid out unsparingly in the course of the trial and the monetary loss has been tallied.

“What hasn’t been said is the personal loss my parents have suffered and continue to suffer; their loss of their sense of security, the loss of their retirement dreams, the loss of precious memories; as family heirlooms, medals, wedding gifts and other irreplaceable mementos, collected over generations, were melted down to their constituent metals and sold for scrap.

“As a family our lives have been irreparably changed as a result of these men’s actions. I can only hope that they lose their liberty for a long time because my parents have already received a life sentence.”